....and a little too transparent too, but hey, ya' can't win 'em all!
Thanks to Johnny Lloyd Rollins for sharing this one on our facebook tiny housing group (you can join through the icon/link in the righthand column). These, obviously in cold climates in particular, would make for some great high-end, and modern, micro houses or vacation camps/homes.
Want to watch the Northern Lights in Finland from a heater/insulated igloo?? (Well, start saving, I'd imagine!)
These glowing, glorious igloos are the centerpiece of Kakslauttanen, Finland's Igloo Village. They do everything to keep you warm and pampered while offering a breathtaking view of the Northern sky. Each igloo is equipped with thermal glass, which keeps the view clear even in sub-zero temperatures. (from gizmodo.com )
Here are a few more exterior shots of the Sennett Bunk/Guest House, which I shot while on vacation in China, Maine- right outside Waterville- where Dana Sennett is currently the Mayor. Its a great little cabin, with bunk beds and a closet within (a closet that could easily be made into a small bathroom). We'll eventually show you the interior once we get a few more photos from the Sennetts, as this will be an episode of "Tiny Yellow House" at some point (we actually shot it last year). This little cabin/house originally was a mere wood shed, and later converted into what you see today. The smaller "shed" also shown, is the old Sennett ice fishing shack- now parked on their narrow lot for storage. I believe the cabin is approx. 8' deep, but 12' long or so. The front window is a fake mirrored shelf for plants.
Cold beer, seating, grilling, cooling (fan), storage, and rain protection- all in one little area/deck.
Dana is also a master recycler, bargain hunter, and clever/thrifty guy- with some very decent insight/knowledge in green energy and practice- some of which he might attempt to bring to the city of Waterville, ME- which has a gorgeous, old fashioned downtown, great restaurants, and even an independent bookstore or two! I do recommend a visit- there's lots to discover in that area.
The Sennett Camp (the main house- also very small (not shown)) will be in the photo insert collection/section of my book (the new edition- below). And again, at somepoint, we'll finish up the editing of the episode based around this tiny Maine camp and guest house. (all photos by me, Derek "Deek" Diedricksen).
If you had asked me just a few years back if I'd ever be asked to not only speak at Walden Woods, but bring out one of my micro cabins/shelters for display, I would have thought you crazy (and would have immediately requested a sip of whatever you had been apparently drinking).
Well....its happening- THREE SPEAKERS- WALDEN WOODS- and its all FREE- so mark them calendars, if you're within driving distance.
Please pass it on.... CLICK ON FLYER TO ENLARGE IT....
Side notes: John Hanson Mitchell's book is REALLY good- I recently read it- do find a copy (sadly, its out of print). I'll also have the last batch of old-version, hand-assembled books on hand as well....and will be hanging out for quite a bit after to just chat with anyone who has questions, ideas, and so on- and to enjoy the park.
ALSO- the very next day- Sun, Oct 16th- I've been invited to be a guest speaker at Jay Shafer's Tiny Tumbleweed House Company workshop in NYC- so to any attending, I'll see you there!
Sage's "Woods Wagon"- the overall micro-structure is only 24/25 square feet (4' by 6', roughly, I'd imagine).
Sage Radachowsky (Note: He and I are speaking (FREE) at Walden Woods on Oct 15th- more details below), who you've seen before on "Tiny Yellow House" TV (video below), recently shared this cool little portable, temporary dwelling with us on our tiny/small housing facebook chat group, and more recently has agreed to give us some more info and background on it.
Its a pretty cool, sleek, and simple little structure, and one that could be build for a very small amount of loot, I'd imagine. In terms of setting up camp in the woods, if you ever got booted from a site, it'd simply be a matter of picking up the yokes/handles and rolling elsewhere. This structure could make for a fun and effective little art studio, reading spot, yoga room (if a little larger), guest bunker, or even a traveling vending/sleeper cart (for places like Burning Man Festival, Coachella, Life is Good Festival, etc). I'd personally like to see something like this in treehouse/treefort mode- an easy conversion.
A "Hawk's Eye View"
I do hope he builds it, as I'd love to get him back on video to showcase something like this.
As for more info from Sage himself.....(taken from his facebook posts, and more recent emails with me).
This (The Woods Wagon) is an idea for a human-drawn wagon for cold-weather dwelling in the woods for a day to a couple weeks. Goal is 100 pounds or lighter .. propane stove/heater (vented outside of course) .. 25 square feet inside. Polycarbonate canopy, double layer for warmth. Load up with books, tea, oatmeal, millet, a small guitar, and go
I think it's a lot like some of your designs/cabin in function and concept.
My one main concern is where to find sheets of polybicarbonate? It may be pricey though .. but I think worth it for the clarity of the sky view. Two layers, as well, for insulation.
I don't think I'll get to build it this year .. it would be so awesome if I could .. you're welcome, and anyone else, to take any ideas from it of course! It draws from your philosophy and work as well.
My idea was to have a propane heater that is vented to the outside, but would radiate most of its heat inside the thing, and I think a pilot light size flame would heat the space in all but the coldest weather. I picture a metal box with a glass window for the heater, within the small countertop ... and placing a heat radiator on top of the metal box for heating ... then removing that heat radiator (you know, something like this) and turning up the flame when you want to cook on the top of the box, to make tea or whatever.
I also picture a tiny sink that drains to the outside, for simple washing. Just an inch deep or so.
Perhaps I can get to it. I would love to spend time in it, reading down at the pond near my house ...
-Sage
SAGE AT WALDEN WOODS? FREE?
Sage runs www.gypsyliving.org, is a VERY talented guitar maker and carpenter (www.selvaguitars.com), and will be speaking with myself, and author John Hanson Mitchell ("Living At The End Of Time")- at Walden Woods, Sat, Oct 15th- FREE. A tiny housing/small living mini-seminar that the park is organizing and offering. Should be fun!
THE VERY NEXT DAY (Oct 16th)- I've also been invited as a guest speaker for the NYC Tumbleweed Tiny House Company's Workshop- which should also be a blast. I'll be yackin' for about an hour on tiny housing, small space design, and more, in the midst of Jay Shafer's presentations.
Here are some sketches and what not that I stumbled upon in the dark, dusty, recesses of my internet scan/photo box.....some of 'em aren't so hot, but you just never know what tiny little detail, angle, or approach might spark off some other idea for one of you.....
This is a more recent pen, marker, and crayon sketch for a potential client- as I was just hashing out some ideas in my head- for a shed/work space. I actually kinda like the 2nd from the bottom, boxy, multi-windowed one- super simple in concept and look, but the windows kind of save it.
This one was from the back of a junk mail envelope- apparently I had no other paper within reach at the time when I was brainstorming "The GottaGiddaWay" cabin.
This one I might have shared before (can't recall)- its in some of the later assembled versions of my book (in place of the old "Vegetable Oil Heater" sketch (I later felt I didn't want to encourage people to play with fire and oil), and will be in ALL the new editions of "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks".
Another newish one, that I posted a sneak of a ways back- more kid-oriented, but just expand it in size, and it could satisfy a kid-at-heart adult. This one won't be in the new edition of my book, but might be in the next book.
Most of these drawings stink, as they're simply fast (n' furious (without the Vin Diesel lisp)) rough drafts, so please don't let them scare you away from my other real, "serious", stuff.
I was asked to come out to the Deerfield Fair in Deerfield, MA the other weekend (a great, very fun, event RIGHT in the midst of the town's historic district) to exhibit one of my tiny shelters/camps/cabins and talk about my d.i.y. book, and naturally, I snapped a bunch of photos on this three day excursion (many more to come).
What you see here, is a fire fighters training facility for the town, but one so unique and compact looking, I couldn't help but take a few shots of it. Basically, its a tangent example of what can be done with a truck container (or a conex box/shipping container) in terms of low cost housing. Most shipping containers run in eight foot widths, but in standard lengths of twenty and forty feet, so there is a decent amount of layouts one could come up with in such a space- especially if you bolted these containers together side to side, and removed the interior walls (making them 16' wide). Granted, with this truck container shown, you couldn't make a two-story structure out of its one shell, well, unless you were under four feet tall....
Me, holding down the fort (literally, it was windy out), behind the lines of the Deerfield, MA Fair
Onlt $11.53 (with a free shipping option!) Order my book in the lefthand column of ANY page of this blog- thanks!
Here's a sketch (not to scale) of what I've been working on lately....a very simple 6' by 12' greenhouse structure that will double, potentially, as a writer's retreat (for a horror/dark fiction author) space for a client. In the endrun, it'll be outfitted with a tiny wood-burning stove, a crushed stone floor (very dark stone to collect and retain heat), and perhaps that tiny deck off of the front. I have a pile of huge second-hand Anderson Windows that have been burning a hole in my proverbial pocket, so these will be put to good use here.
All in all, it could/can double as a tiny guest house, or woods camp/retreat easily. I'd nix the clear roof (too hot) if that were the case though...
My brother spotted this FREE craigslist offer in MA (the town he lives in), but apparently somewhat too late (although some remain- MOVE FAST!) as he told me that he witnessed a crew, first hand, wrecking these storage lockers/sheds (at a marina/yacht club) and trucking the debris away. Oh the humanity! Windows, doors, perfectly good lumber- all being trashed. If you take a quick look at these little tiny sheds, they could easily be reconfigured into small guest houses or vacation cottages- in essense, aside from hauling them somewhere, its a FREE small house at your disposal- deck and porch roofing/canopy-framing included.
FREE Sheds- Currently used as lockers but would be great for Garden Shed or Storage Sheds. Wood construction with doors and roof in fair condition. They are available immediately and will be demolished soon. Sizes vary, some are stand alone and others are attached. Great for those who need some storage space.
As I have more trip-photos (from recent "Tiny Yellow House" TV shoots and build/client trips) than I know what to do with, I'm slowly trying to play "catch up" here and post some of them when I'm able to find the time. This series of pictures is actually from a family vacation in China, Maine- and shows the wide variety of tiny/small houses, cottages, summer camps/cabins, and guest bunk houses that are so common in this area- especially skirting China Lake itself. Very soon I'll also post more photos of the mustard/brown bunk house (the last one shown) owned by Dana Sennett, the Mayor of the City of Waterville, Maine. This is one of the cabins that will be photographically featured in the new edition of my book (see link below), AND in a future episode of our show (a "lost" edition of sorts- back when I still had the long hair- lol). -Derek "Deek" Diedricksen
Anyway, here we go, and while I don't have an interior shots (I wouldn't have been able to get any without breaking and entering (and didn't want to spend my vacation in jail!)) you can still perhaps glean some ideas from the mere exteriors, building approaches and styles that these cabins owners used....
Call it a fort, shack, micro-house, vacation camp, Smurf cottage, mini shack, pre-fab treehouse shell, or whatever- the idea was for a simple and effective, long lasting shelter, for a mere $200 budgetary constraint. This tiny one, or two, person sleeper was one of a pair of structures we built at our sold-out 2011 Relaxshacks.com workshop here in Massachusetts. The other was "The Krunk Bunk"- which has since been featured on Make Magazine, Apartment Therapy, etc. Anyway, this little cabin is beyond-easy to build, affordable, and offers much more protection, durability, and more of a view than most any tent would (which might end up costing more than this anyway). Emergency shelter, the homeless, and kids (as a fort/playhouse) were also in mind.
As I have too many cabins in my yard, this one is also for sale- for $500- without the tiny deck and interior items. The proceeds will go towards us building another structure, and filming it for a "how-to" video as part of our "Tiny Yellow House" series.
Update: Out Now (and perhaps soon online- its a really fun, photo-laden, 4 page spread)....Thanks to Lisa Johnson too! Check out her cool blog at www.analisfirstamendment.blogspot.com
From Lisa's Blog...
Ever since I started reading blogs about simple living and the tiny house movement, I've been interested in learning more. It seemed like a fun topic to write about, so I proposed an article.
It was great meeting them, learning how they came to embrace the idea of simple living in small houses, and seeing Dawn and Dustin's Scituate house that they all collaborated on.
It's a wonderful magazine and the September issue focuses on small spaces with big personality. If this interests you, I hope you go and pick up a copy!
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For those in the area who might be further interested, I'll be speaking at Walden Woods on October 15th (11am I believe- free (with park admission (walk-ins are free)- alongside Sage- the Boston Gypsy Wagon Dweller/Builder AND John Hanson Mitchell- author of a VERY cool book I just read "Living At The Edge of Time"- criminally, out of print....he is the author of several other books as well. THREE speakers- all on tiny housing, small living, and in the path of H.D. Thoreau's work. I'll relist this later on, where it won't be so missed/buried, and give additional details.
I might be speaking on tiny houses the very next day in NYC too- details to follow....
Even Zsa Zsa Gabor would be nuts not to dub this one "Mah-valous".
I stumbled upon this beautiful little garden treehouse a ways back (which would also make for a really nice, simple ground-bound tiny house- even if expanded upon), but have no idea where its from, who built it, and so forth. :(
Anyway, after three days away at the Deerfield Fair in the Berkshires, for a tiny shelter/housing exhibit they asked me to set up (in MA- I'll have some stories, ideas, updates, and photos soon), I thought I'd ease myself back into the daily posting routine on this blog with a mere "eye candy" shot. So drool-on, and I'll be back soon enough with some tales to tell from the west end of Massachusetts.
Real quick- again- this SAT and SUN- I'm at the Deerfield, MA Craftsfair, where I was invited to display/yack/hang out with one of my tiny cabins/shelters- so if you're in the area/The Berkshires- swing on by. I'll have "The GottaGiddaWay" cabin (as seen in The NY Times, Seattle Times, Treehugger.com, PBS, etc) on hand- some copies of my book as well (the few I have remaining of the old hand-assembled versions- before the new expanded edition comes out).
All packed up and ready to go....(the cabin dismantled in its two/three pieces). Um yeah.....we'll be getting some stares on the highway.
Front view with a classic Dietz Lantern. If you look closely in the background you can see the very beginning of the framing for what eventually become "The Wolfe's Den" Treehouse- that I later installed in The Catskills/NY.
Speaking of which- Alex "A-Bomb" Pino from Tinyhousetalk.com is giving away a copy of my book over on his site- and shot a video on it as well- check it out (and thanks Alex!). The NEW edition can be ordered from the link in the lefthand column on this blog.....
